It's Sunday evening so time to catch up on the week since my last post.
Wednesday was the start of the tri-club's track-brick sessions. After a good warm up and some drills I did 3 reps of 6 min bike and 800m track. Each bike rep was high cadence and the 3 800m reps were very well paced. Slightly slower than my usual 800m target but taken easier as I'd raced at the weekend.
Thursday saw an hour on the turbo riding Sufferfest's Fight Club on TrainerRoad. A good session especially with the sprint intervals within each interval rep. I'm not a big fan of big-gear low-cadence work, but it must be done to build strength!
Friday was a warm, sunny lunch time easy run, with some added pick-ups to keep me race-pace aware. Some trail, some road and some very muddy XC section. My XC shoes had only just dried after Marlow!
Saturday morning a parcel arrived in the post for me. It was the flag and stickers that Sufferfest had donated to me. Thanks Sufferfest!
My wife and I knew we had a busy weekend ahead of us. Both children had parties to go to plus the usual visit to the in-laws for cake. Normally I'd cycle over with a long detour though the logistics for the children meant that I'd not do it this week. That, and with the weekend weather forecast looking grim I'd planned to ride Sufferfest's new video, Blender. However I thought I should get outside and took the opportunity to ride my rarely-used MTB. I knew that Swinley Forest was being reworked in to a trail centre so I decided to take a snowy look.
Once my daughter had been collected I cycled over to Swinley with a friendand we spend an hour and a half trying out the new trails. The trail work is very impressive with some good surfaces and a noticeable lack of surface water despite the waterlogged forestry all around. A quick cup of Bovril and flapjack in the cafe, then a further hour rolling around Swinley before heading home for a warm cup of tea.
A really enjoyable session and back in the nick of time; we arrived just as my daughter was being dropped home.
This morning I left the family to their lie-in and headed out with a few friends from my running club. We ran deep wet muddy XC trails and climbed a few hills before heading back in to woodland trails and more mud. We parted ways after about an hour and I did another 30 minutes on my own whilst they went of for some longer mileage. Even though it was cold and lightly snowing it was a good run. I'm so lucky to have such a vast amount of running and cycling terrain on my doorstep.
I got home to find that my wife had baked a lovely cake, ideal recovery food from a run. I also found out that my son's couple of red spots had turned in to full blown chicken pox overnight. Unfortunately for him he would not be going to any party today, and had unwittingly jeopardised my daughters own birthday party scheduled for this week. Other than being very itchy he doesn't appear to be suffering and still tore round the house like a barbarian all afternoon.
Another good week of family fun and 9 hours quality training.
Today was the penultimate race in the Thames Valley XC league, hosted by Tadley Runners.
The course is always a favourite of mine, with plenty of mud, especially the long muddy gully that runs downhill towards 3 ditch crossings. This is followed by a horrendously muddy field that must be skirted before hitting some gravel trails shortly before the finish.
Due to the gravel I wasn't wearing XC spikes, so I was wondering what purchase I'd get on the ground and how this would affect my placing. As I headed down the muddy gully I could see the front of the course heading up the field, a sight I'd never seen before. Obviously gains have been made over the year!
I crossed the line 68th overall, as 61st man and 2nd Finch Coaster. One of my targets at Tadley had been to beat Finch Coasters' fastest lady. Alas it was not to be, as she had finished 9 places ahead of me. 28 seconds is a looong way!
As usual for a post TVXC race we had lashing and lashings of sandwiches, pies, cakes and tea to recover. This afternoon will be spent with the family, probably messing about in the woods.
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and endings. He is typically portrayed as two faced, since he can see in to the future and the past. The month of January is named after him.
So with 2013 upon us, it is an opportunity to recap on the past year, and share some plans for the new year.
2012 was a landmark year for me both in running and triathlon.
January was the second month of training for the Outlaw long (Iron) distance triathlon. Run training was also focussed towards Wokingham half-marathon.
February brought at PB at half-marathon distance, taking 9 minutes of my 2011 result. Half term was spent in Devon where I got some good hill climbing in, and some trail runs around the rugged Devon coastline.
March saw a good performance at the Marlow Duathlon in Buckinghamshire. IM training allowed me to pick up 32 places.
April was the first OW swim of the year, bringing worry for May's first triathlon of 2012.
May was the Marshman middle (half-Iron) distance triathlon in Kent. A cold, wet and windy day, luckily the swim was cancelled and replaced with 5km run. Second duathlon of the season then! This was my first attempt at HIM distance, so I took it steady and paced well. 5:28:54.
June allowed another week away for half-term, this time in Yorkshire. I saw how the Brownlee's have become so superior when I saw the landscape. At last it was taper time too as Outlaw approached.
July - Outlaw Iron distance tri in Nottinghamshire on the 1st of the month. A very nervous couple of days at the end of June followed by a long day at the office. In one day I swam the furthest, set a 180km PB and ran my second marathon. All in for 12:52 and change. The rest of the month was spend enjoying some well earned time with my family.
August was also a great Olympic month! I cycled to and from the Road Time-Trial and saw Bradley Wiggins become victorious. I continued my good luck by going to see the men's triathlon in Hyde Park where I was privileged to see both the Brownlees podium, along with Javier Gomez. What a week!
August was also a return to tri, albeit with a different strategy. Going shorter! I'd entered the Vachery Sprint triathlon in Surrey. I'd felt the swim could have been better and rode well, sparring with some other riders for places. I felt I could have done better on the run, especially on the XC elements like the staircase! Reviewing the results showed that I'd got a 3rd in age-group, and had been 1st in AG on the swim and bike, losing 2 places on the run!
September delivered a sprained ankle courtesy of a rabbit hole whilst running in Austria. Cue a DNS at Cardiff half-marathon. The plus side was 4 weeks on the turbo trainer with TrainerRoad making my cycling stronger. My return to running was at the Dorney tri-relays with my tri club, Thames Valley Triathletes. Poor tidying after the Olympics meant the perimeter road was too muddy for the bike leg, so I raced my first Aquathlon.
October marked the start of my running campaign; 3 months to increase my speed over shorter distances. It also coincided with the start of the Thames valley XC league which was a great boost to the end of year motivation
November showed promising results at the XC leages and my 5km time was reducing. XC spikes made the season easier.
December, much like November was cold and wet. More XC racing and a final chance for a 5km PB at Frimley Lodge parkrun. Alas the course condition was awful. I managed to fall over before the start of the race, and even with spikes it was hard going. I did PB, by 1 second. The next day I finished first Finch Coaster at the Reading Roadrunners hosted XC at Bearwood College, Wokingham. Then a few days R&R with the family. Loads of gifts for the children, and a great Christmas day lunch at our house, with my parents.
2013 - so what will the new year bring?
As I write this I am reflecting upon a great new year's eve with some fantastic friends, followed by a good day's MTBing in the Alice Holt forest, and across Surrey with the same friends. It was nice to finally squeeze in a social bike ride followed by some pub grub and pints.
For me, 2013 is all about shorter, faster races. No Iron or half-iron distances, maybe a half-marathon at a push. It's about 5km and 10km road races, sprint distance duathlons and triathlons. The last quarter of 2012 showed great running improvement by following the Furman FIRST 5km plan. This first quarter is for improving my cycling in a similar, with TrainerRoad.
I plan to do a few parkruns early on to see where I am with my 5km time, and race a few sprint duathlons to get back up to racing shorter and faster. I've entered a few of the sprint triathlon qualifiers for the 2013 ITU World Championships in London and the ETU European Championships in 2014. Let's see how we get on!
